breathes. doing it boldly and bravely and out in the open and, yeah, you can cheat using this, too. i don't care i need to remind myself and being rewarded for it because it worked, for those of us writing stuff on our bodies for years, this is a heart-warming thing and it's the best new thing in the world today. tonight, everyone who follows american politics anywhere in the world is wondering, will mitt romney ever sing again? >> i've released all of my tax returns. and i think that's the right way to go and that's what i would tell governor romney to do. >> mitt, we need for you to release your income tax. >> he should release the tax returns tomorrow. it's crazy. >> if something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. >> you know, i don't know how many years i'll release. >> he did five interviews with every outlet. >> i'll take a look at the -- what our documents are. >> he didn't really address the questions about his tax returns.

>> there's clearly a problem with the tax returns. >> mitt romney may be hiding something. >> he and the campaign are worried about something. >> what is this guy hiding? >> it makes it seem like there's something unseemly. >> this guy romney's on the ropes. >> romney's on the rope. >> and he ain't doing rope-a-dope rope-a-dope. >> the battle over bain just won't go away. >> candidate obama is running at bain. candidate romney is running from bain. >> the rhetorical beating the obama campaign is going to continue on this issue. >> this is just not a good story line, not a good narrative for mitt romney. >> this increasingly negative tone of this campaign. >> i think it stinks to high heaven. >> romney calling for an apology from the obama campaign. >> we won't be apologizing. >> i think it stinks to high heaven. >> stop whining. >> he's afraid. >> they need to put their big girl and big boy pants on. >> if you don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee and we'll lose.

we still don't know if mitt romney committed a felony by filing false documents with the securities and exchange that he committed a musical felony when he matched his singing voice to katherine lee bates' eloquent and ever so slightly socialistic poem, "america the beautiful." if you like mitt romney's singing voice, you better enjoy it now, because after this, mitt romney will never sing again. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. o beautiful, forspacious skies for amber waves of grain for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain america, america, god shed his grace on

thee and crown thy good >> yeah, they went there. the obama re-election campaign started running that ad in nine battleground states this weekend, while the weekend political shows were dominated by mitt romney's tax returns. >> he has released only one year, to the mccain campaign, he released 23 years. and he's telling the american people, i'm not going to give you what i've given john mccain's people in 2008. and when he gave them 23 years, john mccain's people looked at it and said, let's go with sarah palin. so whatever's in there is far worse than just the first year. >> the obliviously rich mr. romney made his case this morning to his oblivious friends at "fox & friends." >> you know, john mccain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. john kerry ran for president, you know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax

returns. somehow this wasn't an issue. the obama people keep on wanting more and more and more. more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try to make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about. we're going to put out two years of tax returns. we've put out one already. >> joining me now, krystal ball, co-host of msnbc's "the cycle." david cay johnston, pulitzer prize-winning reporter, tax columnist for reuters, and a psychologist, and steve schmidt, a former senior adviser to the '08 mccain presidential campaign and a senior strategist in the bush/cheney '04 presidential campaign. so steve, we have to go straight to you. 23 years' of tax returns handed over in the vetting of a possible vice presidential candidacy for mitt romney. did you see those tax returns or who at the campaign did see those tax returns? >> no, i never saw the tack returns, lawrence. they would have been seen by rick davis who ran the vetting operation for senator mccain in that campaign.

but certainly, there was nothing, as we talked about mitt romney, seriously, as a vice presidential candidate, as a team. we never talked about -- there was no indication that there were any problems with the taxes. but i don't know the specifics of them. >> but when you guys assembled an opposition file on romney in the primary, you did have a lot of bain stuff in there, which we'll be talking about in the next segment. we don't have to get into it now. it seems to me your political view in running against romney at that time was anything at bain is relevant, even the dates after he gave up day-to-day control, because bain was his baby, and whatever bain did, you could lay politically at his doorstep. >> look, i think bain has been central to attacks on mitt romney since 1994, when he ran for the u.s. senate against ted kennedy. democrats have made the attacks. there were attacks made by republicans in 2008 and of

course by republicans in 2012, and now we're going around that again. >> steve, should he release the 23 years of tax returns that he handed over to the mccain campaign? >> look, i think one of the things that he's clearly thinking through, lawrence, is that when you are in a disclosure fight and you are forceded to change your position and to disclose something you didn't want to disclose, there's nobody standing there cheering for you saying, great job, attaboy, you know, that was the right, good thing to do. you know, what there is is there's more outrage, there's more calls for disclosure, and i think they've made the political calculus, their going to dig in here and they're going to try to pivot off of this and get back on to the president's economic record. but, you know, pretty clearly, the campaign has been steadfast that the public is not going to see more than two years' of tax returns. it will be very interesting to see this play out between today and the beginning of the olympics. and then i think the race really freezes in place until the conventions, and i think your average american, certainly the

voters that will determine the outcome of the race, they tune out and they reengage in september. >> the republicans are not very impressed with how romney's handled it. let's listen to george will. >> mitt romney's losing at this point, in a big way. if something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. i do not know why, given that mr. romney knew the day that mccain lost in 2008, that he was going to run for president again, that he didn't get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest. he's done nothing illegal, nothing unseemly, nothing improper, but lots that's impolitic. >> krystal, there's george will, blithely ignoring mitt romney's story about how she had to talk mitt into running this time. george is presuming that on election night in 2008, when mccain lost, that the romney campaign was starting again. and of course he should have had this figured out then. >> absolutely. he should have gotten this out, whatever it is, years ago, if there's something that's really

bad. if not, put them out when the olympics come up. there's not going to be a lot going on in the news. people will be talking about the olympics and who's going to win the gold. but i think the fundamental problem here is that it's not just a disclosure issue. the problem is that his low tax rates and the tax loopholes that he exploits really undercut the whole republican narrtive e and argument that people like him and other "job creators" need a tax cut and need special treatment. and it also goes to this entire narrative that that's a different set of rules for rich and for poor, and that people like mitt romney live by one set and the rest of us live by the normal rules of the game. >> david cay johnston, if you're allowed that one hour with the returns, that sometimes -- you know, when schwarzenegger was running, he released his tax return for an hour, and reporters could stare at it. they couldn't make copies. they had to -- what would you -- and you knew you couldn't look at every page. what would you race for and look for in there?

>> what the tax was he paid every year as a percentage. because it is possible in some years he paid no income tax? was he paying well above the income tax? he put out the average of 15%. i would want to look at whether, secondarily, to tell us at any point that he was heavily involved in gray market tax shelters. they weren't declared illegal, but they certainly would have been if there would have been enough resources at the irs. >> and you'll also see in tax records whether anything -- whether he'd done anything that the irs had, in fact, ruled improper and overruled at a certain point. >> and also to figure out if he'd done things where the irs looked askance at these things, but they have to make choices, given their small staff to pursue these things. and i think that would be one of the key things to look for. because he's created a position now where he can't have had any illegal shelters if he puts this out, but there are gray market shelters. >> and krystal, the fact that we

know this same person handed over 23 years' of tax returns, seems to -- that seems to make it the magic number. why won't you hand over now what you handed over then? for a vice presidential consideration? >> right. and not to mention, of course, his father was sort of the model of transparency, and he's not even putting forward enough returns to pass a senate confirmation hearing. so it seems utterly ridiculous. and, obviously, when he was willing to hand 23 returns forward, he had all the information, it's not like it would be a problem to get ate all together. he just is clearly uncomfortable with providing more ammunition and undercutting the narrative about what he wants to do with the economy by lowering tax rates that are already so low for people like himself. >> david cay johnston, my understanding of this standard tithing in the mormon church is 10%. is it possible that you would find in some years mitt romney actually contributed more to the

mormon church than he did to the federal government? >> oh, i would expect that, absolutely, we would see that. george romney, his father, paid, i think, around 19% of his income over a number of years to the church. >> 19? >> about 19. >> because he was a higher earner? >> well, because wealthy people, the church leans upon for extra money, for this project and that project, like all organizations do. >> sure. >> but george romney, 19%. that's a huge slug of your income. he paid much higher taxes, and yet he gave, from the one year we have, a larger share of his income to the church than his son did, with a much lower tax rate. >> and released a lot more tax returns. krystal ball, david cay johnston, steve schmidt, thank you all very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, more on romney bain capital with david corn and "the boston globe's" cal borger borgers, and mitt romney was publicly advised to attack president obama today on his admitted use, the president's admitted use of recreational drugs back when he was in high school. the adviser who wants mitt

romney to do that is drug addict rush limbaugh. and grover norquist is going crazy. i mean, really, really, crazy. he's calling a republican senator a liar. republican-on-republican verbal violence is in the "rewrite" tonight. [ female announcer ] letting her home be turned into a training facility? ♪ this olympian's mom has been doing it for years. she's got bounty. in this lab demo, one sheet of new bounty leaves this surface cleaner than two sheets of the leading ordinary brand. bounty has trap and lock technology to soak up big spills and lock them in. let the spills begin. p&g. proud sponsor of the olympic games. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection,

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just reading this little thing. this is 200 pages of opposition research on mitt romney, done during the republican presidential primary four years ago. there's an awful lot about bain in here. and we'll sew how you some of it, next. and the romney campaign got some public advice today about how to campaign against president obama. the adviser thinks romney should attack the president for being a lazy student who didn't work hard in college or law school. that advice came from college dropout rush limbaugh.

and karen finney will be here later to discuss why china-barber mitt romney is suddenly afraid to say anything about the team usa olympic uniforms being made in china. ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™

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now he wants to get more tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas. >> that was president obama today in cincinnati, ohio, forcing the romney campaign to play defense on the romney years at bain capital, and exactly when those years came to an end. romney says all of the offshoring began after he left, even though reporting by david connor of mother jones shows offshore ing may have begun as early as 1998. during the republican presidential primary in 2008, the mccain campaign did not limit its research to when romney was in day-to-day control of all bain activities. for example, the mccain campaign found that after romney became governor, "bain capital teamed up with chinese appliance maker haier group in 2005 in an effort to purchase maytag corporation

and send jobs overseas." and at least two bain capital companies, stream international, and mow discuss media focused on outsourced technical support services, expanding facilities abroad while contracting operations in the united states. joining me now is david corn, msnbc political analyst and washington bureau chief for mother jones and cal. bain is romney's bain, and the mccain campaign's while assembling their opposition research, believed they could make him answer for anything that happened at bain, even after he left, since he created bain. >> and he owned bain for many of those years. >> yes, as cal's reporting has shown as well.

it took him a few years to figure out how to get out of his ownership of bain with, , but the romney camp and his few friends who are supporting him in this regard on the right are trying to draw this line, when he had daily, day-to-day control and when he didn't. but all you have to do is say, romney's company, romney's companies, romney's funds, engaged in outsourcing, and you're there. you can't deny that. so in some ways, this has become a bit of an absurd argument, with him trying to determine or create this bright line, which doesn't really exist, and cal's reporting, my reporting on the piece out today even, keeps chipping away at that story. and as you mentioned earlier, back in '98, before any of this was an issue, he was already investing in a chinese company. i told this story last week, that was, you know, that was basically profiting on u.s. companies sending manufacturing and jobs to china. so, if you take a step back and

look at the whole big picture here, he's really up the creek. i mean, there's no other way to put it. and he's trying to escape. and that's why he's having a hard time. and that's why we're probably not going to get the tax records or anything else that may give us any insight into romney world, when it comes to all those secret finances. >> let's listen to president obama making his case against mitt romney on this, on local television in virginia. >> as the head of a private equity firm, his job was to maximize profits and help wealthy investors. there's nothing wrong with that. on the other hand, that company also was investing in companies that "the washington post" called pioneers of outsourcing. and he's now claiming, well, i wasn't there at the time, except he files an s.e.c. listing that says he was the ceo, chairman, and president of the company. >> cal borgers, there's the president using all of the work that you and david corn have done, summarizing it as tightly as you could for local media in virginia.

and it seems to me that the president is showing absolutely no indication of letting up on this. >> no, he's not. and we heard from him and also from stephanie cutter, his deputy campaign manager, that there will be no apologies coming, zit what mitt romney was hoping for. but it's certainly opinion an effective argument for them. and there's an absurdist argument going on here. what the romney campaign and some of his supporters seem to be trying to miscast this argument, as if his opponents are attempting to prove that mitt romney was still in charge of day-to-day operations at bain capital. we had karl rove, for instance, say that yesterday. and that's really not the argument that anybody has put forth, as far as i've seen. there's no serious debate about that. but is it believable that romney had absolutely nothing to do with bain after 1999, and that's a much higher standard. >> lawrence, if i could, that is the key point here. they're trying to obfuscate and change the channel a little bit. and one reason they have to do that because of financial

disclosure forms that mitt romney filed federally, including one a few weeks ago, he has said that he was not involved with bain in any way, other than owning, or with its operations or deals in any way after february of '99. i mean, we know that he signed s.e.c. filings after that point. that seems to me to be involvement in any way. >> david corn and cal borchers, thank you both for joining me. rush limbaugh basically told romney to use every racist stereotype he could think of against president obama. and later, bad day for grover norquist. he got himself in a bad fight with a republican senator today. grover's losing it. i mean, really losing it. grover's back in the "rewrite" tonight.

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drug addict and college dropout rush limbaugh -- and you know, i'm not sure which one of those comes first, sequentially, drug addict and college dropout. did he drop out of college because he was a drug addict or did the drug addict thing come because he was a radio talk show host? i don't know. rush limbaugh said today that the romney campaign should attack president obama for smoking pot in high school and not working hard enough in college and law school. that from the drug addict and college dropout. steve kornacki and joy reid will join me on the latest limbaugh

madness next. and also later, mitt romney, who says he will crackdown on china in the ways that no other president has ever had the courage to do. that same mitt romney is afraid to say what he thinks about team usa's olympic uniforms being made in china. that's coming up. [ male announcer ] before you take it on your road trip... we take it on ours. this summer put your family in an exceptionally engineered mercedes-benz now for an exceptional price during the summer event. but hurry, this offer ends july 31st.

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and so too is the summer event. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c250 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears. the mercedes-benz summer event ends july 31st. in the spotlight tonight, republican campaign strategist, rush limbaugh. rush thinks mitt is doing a terrible job of fighting back against the team obama attack on mitt as a pioneer of outsourcing. but rush thinks he knows why mitt isn't hitting back hard enough. >> romney knows how to do this. he did it to newt and he did it to santorum. he knows full well how he has to do this. but i know what they think they're up against. they got the first black

president, independence. it's easy to go after newt or romney, because they're conservatives and everybody hates conservatives anyway. but we can't go after poor old barack that way, because he's a minority. >> and so rush decided to teach mitt how to go after a minority. rush this is mitt should be hitting barack obama as a lazy, drug-taking beneficiary of affirmative action. rush didn't use the word "shiftless," but rush threw in every racist stereotype he could in his advice to mitt. >> okay, mr. limbaugh, since you have the answer to everything, what would you suggest that romney do, if he do -- okay, fine! look, pal, which i was out creating jobs and investing in businesses and growing this

economy, you were at columbia smoking weed and snorting coke. you wrote about it in your book, you talked about how you got into harvard and you didn't have to do any. that's what you loved. all you had to do was go to class and spoke a little weed while i was out building the country while you were doing that. >> so mitt was building the country? i didn't know that. why hasn't mitt done more photo ops in front of the things that he built. like the interstate i was driving on when i heard rush say these things. so mitt was building the country while the president was at columbia smoking weed and snorting coke. rush told his audience that the president wrote that in his book, so it must be true, that he was smoking weed and snorting coke at columbia. in his book, president obama writes of a difficult period in high school when he lost all contact with his father, who he had met only once when he was 10 years old.

he wrote, "i had stopped writing to my father, and he'd stopped writing back. i had grown tired of trying to untangle a mess that wasn't of my making. i had learned not to care. pot had helped, and booze, maybe a little blow when you could afford it." that's it. that's what the president wrote in his memoir of his drug use. but the dittoheads listening to rush believe that he wrote in his book that he was smoking weed and snorting coke at columbia, which he got into, obviously, due to affirmative action, which is why he got into harvard law school, and that's why he became president of the harvard law review, elected president, because of affirmative action. now, rush could be bitter about barack obama's academic achievement because rush was not elected president of the harvard law review.

in fact, rush wasn't even a member of the harvard law review, because rush didn't go to harvard law school. or any law school. and he didn't go to law school because, well, they couldn't graduate from college. college was just too tough for rush. and we're not talking about columbia, one of the most academically rigorous institutions of higher learning in the world. we're talking about southeast missouri state university, the local college in rush's hometown of cape girardeau, missouri. rush had to drop out of southeast missouri state university because it was academically overwhelming for him, this is according to rush's mother, okay? "he flunked everything." that is a quote from rush's mother. "he flunked everything." how lazy or drug addicted did

rush limbaugh have to be as a college student to flunk everything? everything. and how much weed did rush smoke as a college student? how much coke did he snort? this is a drug addict we're talking about. rush limbaugh is a drug addict. he grew up to be a radio talk show host drug addict who committed crimes to get his drugs and was convicted of those crimes while mitt romney was building the country, and suspended his appearances on his radio show to deal with his drug addiction. rush limbaugh hates barack obama. hates him. but he knows he can't say exactly those words, so this is the way rush found today to say, i, rush limbaugh, hate barack obama.

>> i'll tell you what. i think it -- i think it can now be said, without equivocation, barack obama is trying to dismantle, brick by brick, the american dream. there's no other way to put this! there's no other way to explain this! he was indoctrinated as a child. his father was a communist, mother was a leftist, sent to prep ivy league schools where his contempt for the country was reinforced. >> ah! so ivy league schools reinforce contempt for america. did mitt romney's ivy league schools reinforce contempt for america? did george w. bush's ivy league schools reinforce his contempt for america? and, hey, did the ivy league schools that all of these guys went to reinforce their contempt

for america? and barack obama was indoctrinated by his father, who he met once? was rush limbaugh indoctrinated by his father, who was a lifelong republican and a delegate to the republican national committee in 1936? here is what president obama said that led rush to say, without equivocation, that the president hates america. >> look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people who think, wow, it must be just because i'm so smart. there are a lot of smart people out there. it must be because i worked harder than everybody else. let me tell you something, there are a whole bunch of hard-working people out there.

if you are successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. there was a great teacher somewhere in your life. somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system that we have that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges. if you've got a business -- you didn't build that, somebody else made that happen. the internet didn't get invented on its own. government research created the internet, so that all the companies could make money off the internet. >> joining me now are joy reid of thegrio.com, managing editor, and msnbc contributor, and steve kornacki, cohost of msnbc's "the joy, all of those racist stereotypes that rush was using are things that mitt romney can't say, rush says very, very effectively. there's no mystery to what he's talking about there. is it your sense that the

republican campaign is kind of, in a sense, relies on rush for this? >> you know, it's funny. that was so enjoyable, just listening to that entire monologue was so funny. >> imagine me trying to drive while rush is saying these things. >> i know! and the thing is is that rush limbaugh is speaking to an average age 67, even older than fox news. these people out in the hinterlands where his syndicate or owns all the stations and force places this radio show that allows him to seem successful. so he's got a declining sort of product. he's got an angry, miserable base, that feels they're the true victims of american history, right? the blacks got everything. the women got everything. they're so lucky. we've got nothing. rush limbaugh had a privileged existence. he was born to an upper middle class family. he had every advantage, and he just couldn't get it done. this guy is president of the united states. are you kidding? he thinks he's better than you. that is what rush limbaugh's message is.

problem -- mitt romney's already got those people. those people are already going to vote for mitt romney. the problem is if he listens to the likes of rush limbaugh, how does he get the others? the people who are not crazed with hatred for barack obama and with envy for what barack obama has achieved. >> steve, i want to replay a piece of what the president said that drove rush so crazy today. it's this small section where he's talking about, you know, infrastructure and starting businesses. let's listen to that. >> somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system that we have that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges. if you've got a business, you didn't build that. >> now, rush is saying if you've got a business -- he's saying if you've got a business, you didn't do it. no, what he's saying is if you've got a business, you didn't build the roads and bridges. the thing he's talking about very clearly in the previous sentence. yes, you built your business. you didn't build the road going into your business.

>> right, or more broadly, you didn't build the american system that he's talking about. what obama is doing there, the context he's talking about, it's sort of a riff on elizabeth warren, who last fall had that filer viral video where she clearly explained the social contract, that no one gets ahead clearly and purely by themselves. i think that's what obama was trying to do, a little inartfully. but the other thing that strikes me about limbaugh, you think about his listeners, they're obviously not going to be voting for obama, they're going to be romney voters. but there has been a question about romney this entire time about the enthusiasm of the republican base. they don't really believe he's socially conservative. limbaugh himself has said this about romney. and what really drives them, what's going to get them to the polls and out in droves, not that they like romney and they want romney to be president, this is the message they need to keep them motivated. all the resentment towards obama and limbaugh delivers that -- >> and rush is delivering personal hatred to the president. steve kornacki and joy reid,

thank you both for joining me. >> sure. coming up, grover norquist is losing it. he's losing his grown up on republican senators and he may be losing his grip on his sanity. wait until you hear what he said today. and later, anti-china tough guy mitt romney is afraid to say what he thinks about team usa's olympic uniforms being made in china. that's coming up. at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.

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we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. in tonight's "rewrite," the man i introduced you to 15 months ago is going crazy. meet grover norquist. the president of americans for tax reform, whose mission statement is, "the government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. we believe that that power should be minimized." that's right, the most powerful man in america who does not

sleep in the white house is losing it. he is being driven crazy by republican senator tom coburn, who decided to do these two things in this order. number one, not run for re-election. and number two, go to war with grover norquist. i have praised senator coburn's choice to take on grover in this space a couple of times before. and today in "the new york times," coburn wrote an op-ed piece attacking grover once again. then grover made the mistake of responding in an interview with the hill, in which he inadvertently revealed just how batcrap crazy he is now. here is how he explained his fight with coburn to the hill, word for word. i defy you to make any sense of this at all. "it is like a couple that is having a fight, and one of them tries to drag a third party in, like the preacher, who gave a

speech last week against adultery. hey, this is your fault. no, no, no! you promised her you would behave, you didn't promise me. you explain to her why you get to make decisions on adultery." so grover now sees himself in like a same-sex marriage with tom coburn? or grover's the preacher or coburn's the preacher and taxation is adultery? okay, grover then went at coburn viciously, saying coburn lied in his op-ed piece. he used the word "lie," saying that piece is full of lies. this is, according to grover, the biggest lie in coburn's article today. "i recently proposed amendments to end tax earmarks for movie producers and the ethanol industry. mr. norquist charged that those measures would be tax hikes unless paired with dollar-for-dollar rate reductions, and yet all by 6 of the 41 senate republicans who

had sign added had ed his pledge voted for my amendments." what coburn has written there is absolutely true. so grover, calling it a lie, is outright crazy. first of all, lobbyists, which is what grover is, don't call senators liars ever! even when they're lying, because that just makes every other senator wonder when you're going to call him or her a liar. once a lobbyist has called a senator a liar, that lobbyist can never do business with that senator again. never persuade that senator to do anything. and second, grover is calling coburn a liar over something every senator and every member of the house knows is true. republican senators chose to violate their oath to grover in a vote to kill a couple of tax loopholes. and remember what grover did the day that happened?

june 16th of last year, i reported that night that grover, the protector of tax loopholes, created a loophole in his pledge after the fact of that senate vote, insider to pretend that his pledge had not been violated. grover said that day, as long as the senators who voted with coburn, quote, also vote for the demint amendment, they will be in keeping with the pledge, end quote. the demint amendment is a repeal of the estate tax, and therefore that would counterbalance the increase in taxation in the coburn vote. but this was a change in the pledge for grover, because prior to that day, the pledge required any vote for any form of tax revenue increase to include in the same bill or amendment a vote for a tax cut of the same or greater amount, right there

in the same bill. that's the way grover's pledge always worked, until 13 months ago, when grover said it was okay to vote for a tax increase, as long as you promised to, quote, also vote for senator demint's forthcoming amendment. now, it was still a loophole in the grover pledge, even if senator demint's amendment was guaranteed a vote in the next hour. but it wasn't guaranteed a vote in the next hour. not even that day. nor was it guaranteed a vote the next day. it was never guaranteed a vote. and i asked here on that night that grover created the loophole in his pledge, what if the demint amendment never even comes to a vote? that's what republican senators were asking when they were making fun of grover that day,

when his pledge got broken by republicans on the senate floor. senator chuck grassley said, "there is a certain inconsistency because there are two separate votes." senator john thune said, "i think that's going to make it incredibly difficult for the pledge to have credibility going forward." senator mike gohahn said, "what grover norquist has just done is blown his pledge wide open." how big is the norquist exception? 13 months later, the demint amendment still has never come to a vote. so now, according to the norquist exception, you can vote

for any tax revenue increase you want, as long as you promise grover that some day you'll vote for a tax cut in some other bill and that some day never has to come. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes and deposits at the same time. for paying your friend back for lunch...from your tablet. for 26 paydays triggered with a single tap. for checking your line, then checking your portfolio. for making atms and branches appear out of thin air. simple to use websites, tools, and apps. for making your financial life a little bit easier.

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i am so upset that i think the olympic committee should be ashamed of themselves. i think they should be embarrassed. i think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile, and burn them. >> that was harry reid last week, reacting to the news that the team usa's uniforms were made in china. ralph lauren, who designed the uniforms, has since promised to make the 2014 olympic uniforms on american soil. so if harry reid is that upset

about it, what does china-barber mitt romney have to say about it? >> you know, i'm not going to weigh in on that. the olympic games are about the athletes. and we're going to watch the athletes perform and these other matters are extraneous, i think. >> while romney was running the olympics, the olympic torchbearer uniforms were made in burma, and the united we stand pins were made in china. joining me now, karen finney, former dnc communications director and msnbc political analyst. karen, i wanted us to listen to what mitt romney had to say about being tough on china, just last week. >> okay. >> i'll clamp down on cheaters like china and make sure they finally play by the rules, and don't steal our jobs. >> karen, don't steal our jobs! what about our jobs making the olympic uniforms? >> that's right. who thought that bain capital and, you know, the olympic uniforms were connected by mitt romney and outsourcing?

but there's another thing that i want to say. this is exactly the incompetence that we've seen from this campaign. it was predictable. once the china story came out about the uniforms, that maybe somebody would go back and check and see about the uniforms under mitt's tenure. so, again, the fact that the campaign was not prepared with an answer. that's malpractice, and i almost feel bad for mitt romney on that one. so then we go to today, the story comes out. they have no answer. here's the other problem, though, lawrence. this is exactly like the tax returns. we think that the reason he doesn't want to talk about it is there must be something in there that's politically inconvenient. they keep saying, no, that's not true. he didn't want to talk about the olympic uniforms on friday, which seemed silly, because it seemed like the perfect tee-up. then we find out, guess what, it's politically inconvenient. not good pr management by the team. >> well, he does have, you know, some strikes against him in this category when he was running the olympics. susan bonfield, who was a

torchbearer the year that romney ran the olympics, in an interview with "the guardian," she said, "when i look at the label for the uniform, i went nuts. when you are sending work representing the u.s. to a military dictatorship, i have an issue with that." so if romney was going to say they shouldn't have had their uniforms done there, then why did he have the work done in burma when he was running the olympics? >> well, that's exactly right. but, again, in this instance, this is something they should have been prepared for. it was a very obvious, predictable thing that once the story came out about the uniforms, this time being made in china, someone would take a look and would find that quote. i mean, i found it on google. i mean, it's not that hard to find. and the fact that they were not prepared, again, i find it stunning. and again, because it also, as you point out, goes to this outsourcing question. so there are a number of levels where, again, team romney just really fell apart on this one. >> karen, i know a patriot who can afford to solve this whole problem for the u.s. olympic